Lokniti Foundation: NGO behind Aadhaar-mobile linking

TheLokniti Foundationis a secretive organisation with no website, no presence on social media, and no public list of trustees. Their registered office is a sealed building in south Delhi’s outskirts. According to its brochure, it is a non-profit established “with the primary objective to improve the quality of life of the people in social, political & economic spheres through public policy initiatives, intervention and programs.” It’s mission, according to the document, is “[t]o be the ears, eyes and hands of the judicial system to create equality in the society.”AHuff Post India articletalks about the central government’s enthusiasm in taking up Lokniti’s PILs. TheAadhaar-mobile linkingand theDNA Profiling Billare its most successful ‘lobbying’ efforts till date.After the Aadhaar petition by Lokniti was heard in court, the government used it to claim that the Supreme Court had made it mandatory to link Aadhaar to mobile phones. Only last week was it revealed during a hearing on Aadhaar thatthere was no such directionfrom the Supreme Court.

Another PILfiled by the NGO in 2012, asks the government to create a DNA database of unidentified dead bodies so that it could be used to later trace their identity and help police investigation on missing persons. The NGO’s PIL fast-tracked the process ofa similar systemthat had been suggested by the CBI, five years previously in 2007. In 2017, the government told the Supreme Court thatit was drafting a ‘Human DNA Profiling Bill’.

Lokniti’s executive members are retired, and senior serving members of the IAS, IPS and IRS. While it is unclear if the group has any political affiliations, one of its Hindi publications, Vichar Parikrama, lists several present and past politicians from various political parties among its “prominent writers”. It is not uncommon to use PILs to influence government policy, but for an organisation to be largely made up of high-ranking government officers to use this approach is curious.

You can read more on the disasters surrounding the Aadhaar-mobile linkageshereandhere.

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